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Topic: Where did all the enthusiasts go? (Read 2547 times)

I bought the first MH900e I ever owned about 6 years ago and then the old forum was alive. Having joined, I quickly sourced the DP extra parts I wanted through helpful fellow enthusiasts either giving me links to parts for sale or selling the ones they no longer wanted and at a fair price too, being a fellow owner, forum member and MH900e enthusiast. In return I took my bike to a carbon fibre manufacture and left it there for six months on the other side of the country so they could use it to pattern and mould carbon parts from it for a group buy. I was happy to help the forum members get the parts they wanted, I got the part I wanted too and we all got a great deal so it didn't matter to me that I lost a summer's riding. I even spent months re-vamping the registry and updating owner lists across the globe for the benefit of the forum members. Fast forward after the sale of that bike, several bikes in between and I bought a second barn find MH900e. It needed TLC and was standard so I thought I'd fire up my forum membership. In doing so I arranged, brokered and completed an X-bracket group buy for some of the guys on here. I already had one so no benefit to me other than to help the guys in the same owners group and make things better in the community I joined.Looking for the few parts I'd like to add to my second MH900e and the parts have become very scarce. Worse, there are owners on here stockpiling parts they already own several times over, buying up all they can get their hands on and advertising the same wanted ads on Ducati forums all over the globe, grabbing as many parts as they can. You can only fit one set to your sole bike right? This isn't to help their fellow forum members and marque owners though, it's so they can empty a niche supply base and sell on at vastly inflated prices and turn a fast buck. They also seem to have very little knowledge about the bikes, the engineering or the value of the parts, they are just collecting them up and flipping them for the biggest mark up they can manage. I've seen X-brackets offered for $1000 when the better machined ne ones are $440, Termignoni systems sold for over $6000 when I bought mine 6 years ago for $1800 and you can get a bespoke identical copy made in Ti today for $2500. Refinished Carbon dream seconds kits bought unfinished and cheaply in recent years and then lacquered and sold on for $5000+ - every one of them with the flaws that led to them being marked as seconds and unfinished in the first place. Damaged mirrors selling for $650, scratched clutch covers for $350.... Whatever happened to the camaraderie of a single make and model forum like this where the people who visit, help the collective owners group instead of joining the forum and sitting like vultures ready to pounce on any relevant part purely for their own benefit. We used to help each other keep our bikes running, healthy and looking good, it was a fellowship with common goals, shared ideals and experiences and it was a great place to hang out and a great community to be involved in. It seems the world has taken a turn for the worse in many ways and the stockpiling of parts by the greedy few, denying the pleasure of the many is now the norm. I for one have the resources to make what I can no longer buy because of the hoarders sat on their rotting treasure and if I can make for other genuine enthusiasts I will, at no profit to myself and I hope that fate catches up with the hollow, shallow and greedy few leaving them with a horde of parts that people refuse to pay their exorbitant prices for. You reap what you sow in this life, karma is coming for you...

Minding the grey market for second hand parts of MH900e which has skyrocketed recent years, this is still a place you could find some nice advice and/or download workshop manuals. You need something more than good intentions and hard work to keep this place running - its flow of people and easy intermediate. This is why i think some of us migrated to a more convenient platform on facebook. There is a group https://www.facebook.com/groups/11523605407/ which is constantly updated with fresh pictures and member stories. I think they should blend somehow.